Social Influence Of Conformity In Today's Society

In today’s society it almost seems impossible to not be affiliated with a group one way or another. Groups can be formed because of many reasons such as: religion, culture, music taste, sexual preferences and many other reasons. Even though America is known to be a country where many are against conformity, it seems to be an inevitable occurrence when being part of a group. When group are analyzed conformity is a major occurrence that always seems to be at play. Conformity is a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. This occurs because of the social pressures that can exist, especially if one is fond of a group and wants to stay in their good graces. An example that shows just how powerful conformity can be are the events that occurred in the Abu-Ghraib prison. In this prison, which was located in Iraq, many decent individuals committed heinous and indecent acts. These acts were promoted through the process of conformity. This process can also be seen in a simple exercise conducted in class where other group members and I had to decide collectively on an answer to a proposed scenario. The exercise proposed this scenario: You are in a sinking ship and there are only 8 lifeboats, therefore you have to …show more content…
One of our group members seemed to actually not be affected by this influence at all. For example he believed that the baby should be saved because it had ‘potential’ and no argument that we posed seem to change his mind. Although we did not keep the baby, towards the end I agreed to keep Bobby. I initially did not think he should be saved because he was mentally retarded, but after persuasion by others I changed my point of view. One factor that I do not think was present was the importance of being accurate. Personally, I made my decisions very easily and analytically, this was solely because the situation was not realistic and I knew my choices were not